Israeli and Jewish music.

An article by Elahn    1 Comment

This post takes a break from my rants and raves to kick off the shoes of touristic travels and tantalise your earbuds with the sounds of Israel. I hope this works as I’ve found a website that allows you to put music on your website so let me know if it doesn’t work.

Firstly a song that I remember my mother used to sing in the Brisbane Shir Li Choir. It’s called Jerusalem of Gold. There is more info about the song here – www.jerusalemofgold.co.il/.

It’s best to sit in a quiet room and turn down the lights to listen to this one while you take in the history of this country.

At every Barmitzvah, wedding and other grand Jewish celebration you can’t avoid the Jewish song medley which always includes Aveynu Shalom Alechem, To life and other standards. Dancing for 40 minutes before getting feed is the best way to know no food will be left over.

Another great song we learned as kids was Hi-Ne Matov. Somewhat similar to Row Row Your Boat in the “singing in the round” fashion, we would sing this at Betar camps sitting around the fire. Thankfully it was a controlled camp fire, not the dining hall. Here is a jazzy version of the song.

Hava Nagila is perhaps the only Jewish song my non-Jewish friends in school new. It was as much a staple amongst us at Sunday School as it was for kids at Anglican or Catholic schools. Here is a unique panflute version.

On Passover, the youngest child asks ‘Why is this night different from all other nights?’ I bet they never sung it like this before.

One of my favourite musicals is Fiddler on the Roof. I’ve seen it on stage also with Topol. The Jewish people in Exile summed up in a 3 hour musical. Here we pick it up after the wonderful opening shots over the shtetl of Anatikva. The violin solo at the end always gets me teary.

Israel today is a country of vast contrasts. When I think of Israeli music I always think of the folky sounds such as those at the top of this page. I never think of anything modern, top 40 or dancy. The truth is there is alot of music like we have in the West here – dance, house, commercial and much more.